Online shopping is booming, and many old golf courses and office buildings in North America have been transformed into warehouses

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of e-commerce, with a large number of retailers shifting sales online. This has also triggered demand for warehousing space in the e-commerce market, with many companies seeking new warehouses or distribution centers to complete online orders and avoid delivery delays.

According to data from commercial real estate services firm CBRE, in 2020, North America broke records for warehousing and logistics space for warehouses or distribution centers, with total transactions reaching 350 million square feet in 22 markets, an increase of nearly 25% compared to 2019.

Some relevant people predict that as the epidemic is brought under control, the growth rate of e-commerce may slow down in 2021, but CBRE said that the new crown epidemic has had a huge impact on warehousing and order fulfillment, and this trend will continue to grow anyway.

In fact, e-commerce giant Amazon has already begun to expand. It is reported that Amazon has bought golf courses in Claytown, New York and Tennessee as its distribution centers. In addition to golf courses, Amazon has also taken a fancy to old closed shopping malls and idle office buildings, preparing to turn them into its warehouse space to deliver to nearby residents.

In addition, discount retailers Burlington, TJ Maxx and Ross Stores, home retailers Wayfair and Home Depot, and clothing retailer GAP are all expanding their warehouse space to meet their growing e-commerce needs.

Clothing retailer GAP announced in February that it would invest $140 million to build a distribution center in Longview, Texas, mainly for Old Navy and GAP's other online businesses. According to GAP data, the 850,000-square-foot factory can handle 1 million packages per day.

Williams-Sonoma also said it plans to increase its manufacturing and distribution capacity by 20% to 30% next year , adding about 2 million square feet to its distribution center network. Home furnishings retailer Home Depot opened a 1.5 million square foot distribution center in Dallas earlier this year to fulfill orders for its online store .

In fact, with the development of e-commerce, more and more products need to be circulated and stored, especially groceries and goods that require special refrigeration. Retailers need to consider these comprehensive factors, so expanding distribution centers has become an important step in their development.

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